Our first cousin for times removed, Robert Kirk (09 March 1845 – 01 December 1886), known as “Young Bob“, was a Scottish professional golfer. He was born at Saint Andrews, Fife, Scotland, on 09 March 1845, the son of Robert Richard Kirk, a shoemaker and later golf ball manufacturer, who was known as “Old Bob” in golfing circles, and his wife Jean Houston.

Young Bob Kirk’s golf career was highlighted by being Scottish Champion in 1875 along with second-place finishes in The Open Championship in 1869 and again in 1878. Kirk also had a second-place finish in the 1870 Open Championship after winning a playoff against Davie Strath. Kirk played consistently well with nine top-10 finishes in The Open Championship beginning with a fourth-place finish in 1865 and ending with a second-place finish in 1878.

Young Bob Kirk died on 01 December 1886 in Saint Andrews at the relatively young age of just 41.

Golf career

14 May 1754

91 years before Young Bob’s birth, Golf was formalised at Saint Andrews with the foundation of the Saint Andrews Society of Golfers.

1864

In 1864, Young Bob Kirk became the professional and clubmaker at Royal Blackheath Golf Club, London.

1865

On 01 January 1865, Young Bob Kirk, came second equal in the annual competition of the Operatives Golf Club at Saint Andrews with 99 strokes. His father, “Old Bob” came fifth.

On 14 September 1865, Young Bob Kirk, came fourth in the British Open at Prestwick and won £2.

1866

In 1866, he came third in 25 hole Montrose Open – the longest round used in professional golf.

On 13 September 1866 he came fifth in the British Open at Prestwick.

1867

On 17th May 1867, he took part in a Grand Golf Tournament by Professional Players at Leith Links. The players included old and young Tom Morris, old Tom’s brother George.

On 26 September 1867, he came fifth in the British Open at Prestwick.

1868

On 23 September 1868 he came seventh in the British Open at Prestwick.

1869 and 1870 Open Championships

Tom Morris, Jr. was the best golfer in the world in the late 1860s and early 1870s and he exhibited his considerable skills in the 1869 Open Championship and the 1870 Open Championship tournaments. At this point in time he was beating his legendary father, Tom Morris, Sr., on a regular basis. In the 1869 Open Championship, Morris, Jr. won going away by an 11-shot margin and bested that effort in the 1870 Open by trouncing the field by 12 shots. In both years Kirk was the distant second-place finisher.

1873

On 04 October 1873 he came third in the British Open at Prestwick.

1875

In 1875, he was chosen as Scottish Champion.

“Poor Young Tommy being no more, Bob Kirk was the great man, for the time being, at St. Andrews, and he was chosen as the Scottish champion. The first part of the match was played at Westward Ho! We hardly knew how young Jamie Allan would carry himself, in this his first match of importance, but he delighted us by showing that faculty of rising to a great occasion without which no golfer, however fine a player, can win fame. That first round of his remains in my mind still as an exhibition of just the most faultless golf I ever saw. They said hard things about poor Bob Kirk afterwards when he came up to Scotland, and especially to the last stage, at St. Andrews, a beaten man. I believe that in that last phase his play was contemptible. But the Scottish critics, who were not there to see, made a vast mistake when they said that he did not play anything like his game all through the match. What he did at Hoylake and at Prestwick, whither, successively, they jour- neyed and golfed, I do not know, but I do know that at Westward Ho! he played quite a sound game. But a sound game was not enough to give him a chance of standing up to the sample of golf that Jamie Allan produced against him. Hole after hole slipped away from him, just by a stroke each, as they will when the one man is playing with more than human accuracy. That was the story of that match—it was won by Jamie’s extraordinary golf at the first encounter. But that is not the way in which the Scotsmen have heard the story told.”
Fifty Years of Golf by Horace G. Hutchinson, Golf Illustrated.

1878 Open Championship

Young Bob Kirk’s best chance to win the Open Championship came when the 1878 Open Championship, was held on 04 October at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Fellow Scotsman Jamie Anderson won the Championship for the second successive year, by two strokes from runner-up Kirk. Kirk scored rounds of 53, 55 and 51 for a total of 159 and won the grand sum of £5 in prize money.

Details of play

In stormy overcast weather with some rain—typical conditions for early October at Prestwick – James Morris took the early lead with a first round of 50. Anderson, Kirk and the English amateur John Ball each scored 53, to be three shots behind. Morris began the second round badly and finished with a 56 for a total of 106. Anderson, with a second round of 53, was tied with him, while Kirk and Tom Morris, Sr. were both two strokes behind.

Morris was in the third group out and had a final round 55 for a total of 161. Playing a few groups behind, Anderson began his third round with two sevens, but thereafter played steadily. With Morris finished he was told that he needed to play the last four holes in 17 to tie with Morris. At the Burn Hole (the 9th) he holed a full iron shot for a three, followed that spectacular shot with a four at the 10th, and at the Short Hole (the 11th) his tee shot landed on top of the hill behind the green. The ball then ran down the hill and into the hole for a hole-in-one. A five at the last gave him a round of 51 and a total of 157. Kirk, playing in the last group, was still in contention. On the last green he was told that if he holed his long putt he would tie Anderson. The putt lipped out and he missed the return putt but his score of 159 was enough to give him second place.

The Triangular Duel between Young Bob Kirk, Young Tommy Morris and Johnnie Allan – date unknown

“It was about this time that arrangements were made for bringing down Young Tommy and Bob Kirk to Westward Ho! (the place was now thoroughly baptised with its new name), and they played, with Johnnie Allan, a kind of triangular duel.

“I well remember the immense excitement with which I followed those matches. They did not play a three ball match for the prizes offered, but a species of American tournament in singles, and my delight was huge when our local friend defeated the renowned Tommy Morris. Then Tommy defeated Bob Kirk. Now if our Johnnie could only beat Bob Kirk (as he certainly would, we said, seeing that he had beaten Morris who had beaten Kirk), why then he would prove himself beyond denial best man of the three. Unhappily the propositions of golf do not work themselves out as logically as those of Euclid, though often arriving at his conclusion “which is absurd,” and Bob Kirk had the better of our local hero most of the way round. He was dormy one. Then, at the last hole, came a great incident of golf which made on me so deep an impression that in my mind’s eye I can see the whole scene even now. Coming to that last hole—mark this, that our favourite hero was one down, so that feeling ran high—Bob Kirk got his ball on one of the high plateaux, with steep sand cliffs, which at that date jutted out into the big bunker. His ball lay just at the edge of the plateau, and on its left verge, as we looked towards the hole, so that to play it in the direction that he wanted to go it seemed that he would have to stand eight feet below it, in the bunker. And, he being a little round man, we chuckled in glee and said to one another, “He’s done now.” But what do you suppose that pernicious little Scot did then? He went to his bag and selected a club—a left-handed spoon! He had a couple of practice swings with it. Then he, a right-handed man, addressed himself to that ball left-handedly, and drove it, if not any immense distance, at all events as far as he needed in order to make morally sure of his half of the hole, which was all that he, being dormy, required. It was a great tour de force. It exacted our grudging applause. We admired, but at the same time we admired with suspicion. It was scarcely, as we thought in the circumstances, a fair golf stroke. It savoured of the conjuring trick if not of sheer black magic.“
Fifty Years of Golf by Horace G. Hutchinson, Golf Illustrated.

Results in The Open Championship

“Really, considered after this lapse of years which allows cool reflection, it was a good piece of golf. There are not many right-handed men who trouble themselves to carry a left-handed club, even if they have the ambidexterity to use it. In fact it is the only stroke of its kind, played with a full swing in the crisis of a match, that I have ever seen.“

Tournament	1865	1866	1867	1868	1869	1870	1871	1872	1873	1874	1875	1876	1877	1878
The Open Championship	4	5	5	7	2	2	NT	DNP	T3	DNP	DNP	T8	DNP	2

Note: Kirk played only in The Open Championship.

NT = No tournament
DNP = Did not play
“T” indicates a tie for a place
Yellow background for top-10

Family Tree

References

1. Brenner, Morgan G. (2009). The Majors of Golf: Complete Results of the Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters, 1860-2008. 1. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3360-5.
2. “Prestwick – Competition for the Championship”. The Glasgow Herald. 5 October 1878. p. 7.
3. “Championship Competition”. Dundee Evening Telegraph. 5 October 1878. Retrieved 22 December 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.